Minister prepares compensation law for sterilized women

Compensation of between 100,000 crowns and 150,000 is likely to be offered
to women who were sterilized without their consent under a law being
prepared by the minister for human rights, Jiří Dienstbier, the daily
Lidový Noviny reported on Friday. The sterilizations, mostly of Roma
women, took place from 1972 until 1991. Many of the woman signed forms
consenting to the operations but said afterwards that they did not realize
what was being proposed. The Czech Helsinki Committee estimates that around
one thousand women could qualify for compensation. Some women in the past
won court cases that they were wrongfully sterilized but were not awarded
compensation.